Free Internet Marketing Project – FIMP for Short – Scam?
Looking around the internet I found a place called the Free Internet Marketing Project – FIMP for short and being a member of Wealthy Affiliate just had to have a look around this online free service.
Starter Members come to Wealthy Affiliate all the time claiming they can find training on the internet for free and especially on YouTube, this was so bad I had to break it down into two separate reviews unless you wanted to be here for about an hour reading what I had to listen to for over 6 hours to find out.
If you are not interested because this is very long I do understand but do not miss out on joining the best internet marketing community in the world for FREE right here.
Who Is FIMP
Ian is the founder of FIMP, which is the Free Internet Marketing Project, and after sitting through 6 and a half hours of him talking about his training on internet marketing and how people can earn money from the internet shall I condense what I have learned so far.
I have watched from Lesson 1.1 up to and including Lesson 4.4 when I got thrown into a few videos that basically had not much to do with training but how to become and get paid for referring people to the Free Program.
According to Ian, in the first couple of Lessons he talks about Mind Set for Internet Marketing and until you complete these lessons not to go to the other lessons or jump around these are the most important for success with internet marketing.
In Lesson 1.1 the points to his introduction are about expectations due to media with gurus and scam artists flashing the “shiny object syndrome” and having people think these things are true, even though they tell you straight out there are no guarantees you will make money as they do.
They neglect to tell you how much hard quality work it took along for the number of years to find a way to make the money they did online.
Lesson 1.2 – Ian now states there are “Only 4 Paths to Wealth” these are – Content Based Business that is monetized with advertising (CPC, CPM, CPA, etc.) – Service-Based Business (Writers, SEO, etc.) – ECommerce Business (Drop shipping or having your own products) – and Selling your own Digital Products.
Then you have 3 Core Competency you need to know – getting the most money per conversion (content oriented and digital sales), getting high-quality products for cheap, and getting high-quality labor for cheap (service-oriented).
In order to achieve success in any of the above you need to know how to get traffic whether free or paid (which he will go into on a later lesson) this can be done with SEO Authority Outreach, Video Marketing, and PPC.
Goes into length about reverse math, Google Adsense (how it is not profitable or good for a website), giveaways on a content-based website are good for monetizing, Commissions are only good if you are looking at high-end items.
The industry is overwhelming to most newcomers but what they need to realize is you do not have to be good at all the ways of internet marketing just get good at the one that works for you and get traffic. But he will be teaching all of these in the future lessons.
Lesson 1.3 Ian – Explains in this lesson that it has taken years to develop proficiency in all these skills 13 years to be exact and providing this high quality of training takes time especially when people want a quick return on investment.
This whole project for him now comes down to visitors and people joining the Free Program but you can join as a paid member to the FIMP site. At this time the only thing he asks is that you purchase your web hosting through his affiliate link.
Register before going on in the training as an active member (which I did), share FIMP with like-minded people and help other members on the Facebook Group page with questions they may have.
Concludes Lesson 1
That was the conclusion of Lesson 1, now Ian does provide some valuable information here but I have picked up no real experience yet in what I am going to do with internet marketing.
Considering Lesson 2 is all about the MindSet and being successful in the Internet Marketing world this will be on my next review page explaining what all is involved and how Ian plans to set everyone straight with a Mind Set to become successful.
I summed up what took three videos and over an hour of my time in a grand total of fewer than 600 words and only about 15 minutes of time to type it all out and you have all the same information that it took that long for him to explain.
This is by no means a scam he is teaching some valuable information and after all, it is free but so far that is all I have gotten is some free information that anyone can find doing a Google search.
Understand that for now, I am not considering this a scam because I have not completed the whole course or program that he is providing for free on video, but as of now nothing has cost me anything except my time.
Looking for Something Else
When I found this website or YouTube video I was actually searching for something else that would be beneficial that I could work with as in hands-on learning how to do internet marketing online.
There are so many scams out there today, my email fills up with offers every day with them. If you are like me and on a very tight budget there is no way you can afford to keep laying out $49.99 each time for some silly system that does not work.
So far the only thing that FIMP is asking for is you to purchase your hosting from the affiliate link they refer you to and that is for “Blue Host” who I will have a review on by tomorrow and posted on this website.
Hosting companies can be very cheap the first year around just like purchasing a domain name but when renewal time comes around the next year you can end up paying close to if not over double for that same domain name.
As for hosting, with “Blue Host”, this is shared hosting so making sure you have domain privacy along with Site Speed, SSL Certificate (visitors will not come if your site is not secure), and Site Protection (from Spam). These things usually always come with their own price tag and are not included with regular hosting.
Ian leaves these three important things off when he is asking you to use this hosting but does let you know when purchasing your domain name from NameCheap (who he recommends) they include domain privacy for the first year free.
These are all the small points that I picked up on right away only because I have experience with doing websites that anyone new would not be aware of.
In Closing
For now, I am going to hold off passing any type of judgment on this particular training that is offered for free in internet marketing, true it did waste a good deal of my time so far for the few things that have been taught, but no verdict yet.
If you are looking for serious training with hands-on then you can join me here at Wealthy Affiliate they train you, offer you free training along with 20 lessons, 2 free websites (on a subdomain), and hosting with the bells and whistles needed.
The first seven days gets you to access to the community and as much help as needed in the Live Chat area to complete the first 10 lessons of Online Entrepreneur Certification (OEC) and the first 10 lessons of Boot camp.
By the end of these lessons, you will have a website completely set up and ready to take live on the internet. Honestly, you will not have to listen to 6 and a half hours of someone talking without doing tasks that move you forward with making money online.
Which way do you prefer to learn? Hands-on or Listening to video after the video?
Would you prefer a free membership for seven days with 2 free websites (subdomain) and hosting or to purchase a domain and hosting prior to doing anything with them?
Very interested in hearing the answers to these questions along with any comments, suggestions, or questions you might have please leave them in the space provided below I will get back to you.
Thank you for visiting today if your interest you can finish reading my part 2 of the review here >>>CLICK HERE<<< to continue until the end of FIMP “Free Internet Marketing Program”.
The invitation is always available for you to join me for FREE here,
Best wishes,
Susan
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Susan,
Wow! Yet another scheme from these so-called gurus.
It is crazy the way they prey on those money-hungry desperate people. I believe they call this the “Shiny Object Syndrome”. This article of yours was so instructive. Every wannabe affiliate marketer should read your articles. Anyway, keep on finding the scams and exposing them by writing about them.
Thanks,
Jean
Jean,
The problem is unless someone takes the time to expose these people for what they are doing innocent people are spending their money foolishly chasing a dream. Unfortunately, there is no secret to becoming successful online of offline in a business. With the internet there is no magic button to push and money start to fall from the sky into your bank account.
I plan to expose as many of these gurus and scammers as possible – not all the systems out there are fake but until people realize “Shiny Object Syndrome” exists this is all I can do.
Thanks for taking the time to read my article today,
Susan
Hi Susan – I appreciate you taking 6 hours of your time learning about the Free Internet Marketing Project, and then condensing it into your article. Although you get access to a lot of free training, it doesn’t seem extremely beneficial yet. I’ll be curious to read your post about Blue Host and whether that is a good hosting site.
I had not heard of this Free Internet Marketing Project before, so thank you for introducing me to something new.
Michele
Michele,
This FIMP actually took me two articles to cover all the good points that were pointed out, however, you can read both of these in such a short amount of time compared to the 6 hours I had to spend to find out it was going to cost me over $100.00 to continue with the training.
Blue Host will be added to the website soon so please check back often for the write up on them. If you are looking for the best training on the internet or anywhere for that matter please check out Wealthy Affiliate.
Thanks for stopping by and reading my article today,
Susan
Hi, Susan.
This was interesting. I am a member of Wealthy Affiliate and was “found” by a WA member while I was searching for a way to avoid applying for disability benefits. I was recently diagnosed with osteoarthritis and my current work was getting too difficult. I thought maybe I could find some sort of online training that could possibly allow me to earn while I learn. Enter Wealthy Affiliate.
I didn’t know that there are other training programs offering similar training. I’m so happy with WA that I cannot imagine anyone else coming close to offering what they offer. In two months, I have learned a tremendous amount and have three websites going with a tiny bit of income trickling in.
The community support is amazing! Just this morning, I received a cryptic message from Google and had no idea what it meant. I tried Googling for an answer and only found several people who were experiencing the same confusion. Next, I did a search in Wealthy Affiliate. Within minutes, I had found the answer and had the problem resolved.
Oh, well. I guess you already know how great it is. I’ll look for you there.
Theresa,
I found Wealthy Affiliate by accident doing a search one day:) Turned out to be the best
find of my life.
Now I work on keeping people from making the same mistakes I have made in the past looking
for ways that seriously are not FREE on the internet to make money online.
Thank you so much for letting others know that Wealthy Affiliate is there for them and they
do provide the best training online. The membership to me is a complete steal for the price.
Thanks,
Susan
Good looking post, Susan.
I enjoyed the content. It was very thourgh and informative. The post should help people researching Free Internet Marketing Project and Wealthy Affiliate.
I have researched and tried a few different programs over the past 3 – 4 years. I have found Wealthy Affiliate to not only be the easiest program to follow. The support you get from the community far exceeds other programs. It makes you feel more a part of the program and less on your own.
Ken,
Thank you, I wasted a whole day with this particular FIMP over 6 hours of videos. Taking notes there is some valuable information here I must admit. But when I got to the video where I had to buy a domain and hosting things took a turn for me. The man running the Free Internet Marketing Project insists you purchase a domain and he hosting from his affiliate link (to keep the project funded) cost of over $100.00 prior to being able to complete the training.
When WA offers you a Free Starter Membership they give you ALL the details upfront! Plus you begin hands on training immediately.
Please come back anytime,
Susan
Hello Susan, Ian from FIMP here.
I hope you’ll publish this comment unedited, as I believe it’s only fair given the fact that you’ve cast our community in a remarkably unkind light (unfairly, in my opinion). So I’d at least like a chance to defend our little “FIMP fam” that I devote hundreds of hours toward supporting every year.
The thing I would ask readers to keep in mind when digesting this review is that FIMP cannot afford to pay Susan remotely as well as Wealthy Affiliate. She’s compensated $23.50 per month for each premium member she refers (most members who upgrade stick for several months, resulting in a $100+ commission over time), and that’s why you see a large number of negative internet marketing product reviews that turn around and immediately recommend Wealthy Affiliate as an alternative.
Very few reviewers promoting Wealthy Affiliate provide truly thorough, unbiased reviews. They’re looking to get the information they need as quickly as they can to toss up a review and then they’re on to reviewing something else (hence Susan implying that some of the content she saw was a “waste of time” and summarized in just 15 minutes of typing — a statement that several of our members who have said Section 2 **ALONE** was the most valuable online training they’ve ever seen, would strongly disagree with).
There are 17 minutes of niche selection training in Wealthy Affiliate’s “Online Entrepreneur Certification” Level 1. There are 3.5 hours of video training on this topic at FIMP because, as a member of WA for years myself, the #1 thing I witnessed was members not being able to confidently pick a niche.
There are top affiliates at Wealthy Affiliate for several years running who refer their members to FIMP’s niche selection training, and who have told me personally it’s the best they’ve ever seen. I assure you, it’s not remotely the fluffed-up waste of time that Susan has presented it to be in her reviews.
I welcome anyone reading this review and my comment to create a free “Starter” account at Wealthy Affiliate (using Susan’s affiliate link from this review), but to also create a free account at FIMP.
Check out both, and decide for yourself.
If you agree with Susan’s conclusions about FIMP, then I hope you find a safe home in Wealthy Affiliate. Truly, your success and ability to study without being taken advantage of is my #1 priority. That’s all we’re attempting to accomplish at FIMP.
In this instance, Susan would be totally deserving of the Wealthy Affiliate commission she would receive, should you decide it’s a better “home” for you.
But what I’m confident you’ll find is Susan’s categorization of FIMP being inefficient and unnecessarily drawn-out to be grossly misleading, and that you’ll agree this categorization was only made as an attempt to get you to join Wealthy Affiliate using her affiliate link.
You will also find that, should you choose to support FIMP by purchasing a recommended business tool (all of which are clearly labeled as purchases we’re commissioned on), you come out WAYYY ahead of spending $49/month for several months of membership at Wealthy Affiliate.
I can say all of this so confidently because I was a top affiliate for Wealthy Affiliate for over five years.
I did not sacrifice Wealthy Affiliate’s six-figure annual stream of affiliate commissions for no reason — I felt people deserved a safer, lower-cost alternative. The revenue created from FIMP commissions amount to **substantially** less than what I was paid by Wealthy Affiliate, and the majority of the project’s revenue is reinvested towards growing FIMP and paying our full-time staff members.
Susan: I wish you’d simply reached out before publishing this review. I’d have gladly done everything within my ability to help you succeed (that’s why I started FIMP in the first place), and I think you would have found the insight from one of Wealthy Affiliate’s all-time top affiliates to be much more helpful and unbiased than what is contained in the WA Bootcamp training.
Again, I sincerely hope you’ll publish this defense against your accusations, unedited.
I think you’d find someday, should you decide to pour thousands of hours of labor and tens of thousands of dollars into a project as I have with FIMP: it’s very little for someone in this situation to ask, given the harsh conclusions drawn by your review above.
Thank you, Susan. I wish you success in all of your future endeavors.
Ian,
It was seriously very generous of you to take the time to read my review of FIMP. I am hoping you took the time to read both of the full articles that I wrote concerning your “FIMP fam”.
I am sorry that, in your opinion, the typical reviewer from Wealthy Affiliate provides nothing but a draft outline of programs offered they feel are not as worthy of promotion as Wealthy Affiliate. Moving on quickly to the next product to review.
These reviews that you are speaking of, I was just wondering if perhaps the reviewer did not grasp the training provided by Wealthy Affiliate for doing product/service reviews.
Researching and writing proper reviews is covered in Wealthy Affiliate in the “Online Entrepreneur Certification” training in:
Level 1 – Lesson 2
Understanding How to Make Money Online
Level 2 – Lesson 1
Your Own Domain, Your Brand.
Level 3 – Lesson 6
Leveraging Product Reviews
Level 3 – Lesson 10
With Help Comes Financial Success
Again in the Affiliate Boot Camp Training Wealthy Affiliate covers doing reviews using research and targeted keywords:
Level 1 – Lesson 10
Creating Thoughtful, Insightful Reviews
Level 2 – Lesson 4
Creating Reviews and Using Targeted Keywords
This does not include all the extra training provided for Premium Members from other experienced members in the community. Nor does it include Live Training by the Live Event Coach at Wealthy Affiliate where you can ask questions in real time from an expert with SEO experience of over 15 years.
I’d like to also add, that many of the member’s blogs submitted within the community also address this issue, so I am not sure where your opinion on those reviews is derived from.
Your comment on the reviewers and their reviews too, might be a bit biased especially if you do not agree with them.
Niche selection is always going to be a subject of every new member deciding what niche they should choose, training provided with Wealthy Affiliate can be found in:
Level 1 – Lesson 3
Choose a Niche – “Online Entrepreneur Certification” – Over a 17-minute video from co-owner of Wealthy Affiliate
The Five P’s Of Niche Selection And Profitability – An 8-page Lesson written by an experienced Premium Member
Selecting a niche – Blog Post written by an experienced Premium Member
How to Select a Niche – Blog Post written by an experienced Premium Member
Steps to Success #2 [Selecting a Niche] – Blog Post was written by an experienced Premium Member
The Importance of Selecting a Niche – Blog Post written by an experienced Premium Member
There are more of these Blog Posts available in the community but the Live Chat 24/7 is available for Starter Members should they need help or have questions.
Wealthy Affiliate delivers on what it promises from the very beginning joining as a “FREE Starter Member” with No Credit Card Required and never any obligation to upgrade to the Premium Membership. They get access to 20 Free Lessons, 2 Free Websites on the siterubix.com subdomain, and Free Hosting for their Websites. There are other benefits that go with this but knowing the work they put in building their first website is theirs to keep along with FREE hosting for as long as they remain actively working on their website. The only way the website is removed from hosting is if the Starter Member becomes dormant for 30-days or more.
Many of the member’s daily blogs also address this issue, so I am not sure where your opinion on those reviews is derived from.
That statement too might be a bit biased.
And by the way, I noticed for someone that is bashing a platform, that you too have not one but two accounts on, Wealthy Affiliate, may I ask why two?
Could it possibly be that maybe, just maybe, you learned more from WA than you are willing to give credit for? Or possibly you are still earning commissions you achieved while being a “top affiliate” as you worded it.
I don’t know about all that, but what I do know is that I sleep well at night knowing that I give 100%, am completely transparent, and absolutely honest with my readers regarding everything I am doing on my website (the reason for this delayed response) and I am sorry that you feel you have to attack everyone that does not agree with your opinion, my what a great mentor you must be.
I wrote my true and honest opinion of your program or system whichever you prefer to call it after I spend hours reviewing what you are offering. I am deeply sorry that you do not agree with my opinion. But I would never stoop to trying to get more attention to my website or products by leaving comments on reviews that I don’t agree with.
Please, by all means, try to defend your system, because once all the statements are all made. It boils down to the individual and their opinion of your system. If you feel I am wrong then please, prove me wrong I am willing to learn from my mistakes and errors.
You also mentioned that I have a biased opinion; Yes I am guilty of that I voiced my opinion after being influenced by WA’s exceptional platform. Equally important, I truly feel the WA platform is superior to what you are offering. If that hurts your feelings I am truly sorry, but that is my honest, true feelings, and opinion on this matter.
Unfortunately, in life, we cannot please everybody all the time,
Susan